MANILA, Philippines – Citing lack of jurisdiction, a Quezon City court denied yesterday a petition of Bagumbayan Party standard-bearer Sen. Richard Gordon for a temporary restraining order to stop the release of survey results on presidential candidates by pollsters Social Weather Stations (SWS) Inc. and Pulse Asia Inc.

Judge Bayani Vargas of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 219 said it is the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that should determine whether the conduct and publication of surveys on voters’ preference violate the Fair Election Act.

“Considering that the authority to enforce and implement the said law pertains to the Comelec, to the court’s mind, the jurisdiction to rule on the issue brought before this court also belongs to the said body,” said the three-page order dated April 30.

The court canceled the scheduled hearing yesterday afternoon.

The court, however, said Gordon’s filing for P650,000 damages because the surveys had allegedly prejudiced his campaign, falls under its jurisdiction.

“In action for the damages, the amount of claim shall be considered in determining the jurisdiction of the court. In this case, the amount involved puts this action clearly within the jurisdiction of the Regional Trial Court pursuant to Section 19(8) of Batas Pambansa Blg. 129 known as the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980 as amended by Republic Act 7691,” the order said.

SWS and Pulse Asia have argued before the court that the petition to ban the conduct and publication of the election surveys falls under the jurisdiction of the Comelec.

Gordon, who ranks fifth in the surveys, earlier filed the complaint, citing alleged misleading surveys that use “obsolete methodologies.”

His complaint stated that the surveys have reduced the elections into a popularity contest with the survey results purportedly conditioning the minds of voters to favor candidates based on what surveys say and not based on platform.

The court said, “The jurisdiction of the court over the other primary cause of action which is injunction is highly doubtful.”

It also cited that even if it had jurisdiction over the injunctive sought by Gordon, it would still be “constrained to deny the same” because of the Supreme Court (SC) ruling in May 2001 that invalidated provisions of the Fair Election Act that imposed a ban on survey results.

The SC ruling said that such a ban would impose a prior restraint on the freedom of expression.

“In light of this jurisprudence, the court is convinced that it will be an exercise in futility to still proceed with the hearing to determine whether the conduct of surveys and publication thereof may be barred, since this issue has already been settled by no less than the Supreme Court,” the order said.

Gordon said yesterday he would file a motion for reconsideration before the Quezon City RTC.

Christian Diaz, head of Gordon’s legal team, said they would file the motion for reconsideration because they have a valid ground to ask for the issuance of the TRO.

Diaz said the TRO they are asking for is linked to the P650,000 civil case against pollsters SWS and Pulse Asia.

He said the Quezon City RTC violated a rule of court when it treated the petition for the issuance of the TRO as a separate cause of action from the civil case.

“It is illegal to split causes of action,” he said.

While the RTC has denied their petition for the issuance of a TRO, Diaz said they have not lost the case since the court will continue to hear the damage suit.

Diaz said the case has yet to reach its pre-trial stage as SWS and Pulse Asia still have to submit their respective affidavits.

“We are not questioning state regulation in this case. This is an action by a private individual against another private individual,” Diaz said.

Gordon said he is also asking for a TRO against SWS and Pulse Asia to prevent them from conducting more pre-election surveys as these are “conditioning the minds of voters.”

“We asked for a TRO on all surveys. It is robbing the people of their right to be able to engage in a mental exercise where they can gauge their candidate’s capability,” he said.

“It is mental conditioning in no uncertain terms and serves no public purpose that is useful except to try and get more money for the candidates to pay for the surveys who are now leading,” he added.

If he wins the case, Gordon said the P600,000 will be donated to the Philippine National Red Cross while P50,000 will pay for attorney’s fees. - With Mike Frialde

MANILA, Philippines—Supporting former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada may be the only remaining option for the Arroyo administration if it wants to prevent Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III from winning next week’s presidential elections, according to Estrada’s campaign manager.

“If they don’t like Noynoy to win, whether they talk to us or not, it’s normal or it’s not surprising if they swing their support to us to try to block the victory of Noynoy,” former Sen. Ernesto Maceda told reporters on Monday.

“That’s how we will overtake (Noynoy) if and when all of these people who don’t like Noynoy and who feel that (administration bet Gilbert) Teodoro or (Nacionalista Party candidate Sen. Manuel) Villar or (Sen. Richard) Gordon have no chance of winning,” Maceda added.

Maceda painted this scenario as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Tuesday ruled with finality that Estrada—who was ousted in 2001, convicted of plunder in 2007 and then granted presidential pardon that same year—could seek reelection.

The Comelec upheld its Jan. 20 ruling and dismissed the motion for reconsideration filed by lawyer Evillo Pormento, who had sought Estrada’s disqualification.

The poll body maintained that Estrada, 73, was not covered by the constitutional ban on the reelection of chief executives because he was not a sitting president.

Pormento failed to present any new argument that would make the body change its mind, the Comelec said Tuesday.

An elated Estrada said the Comelec decision would “enhance my vote-getting power” and improve his chances of winning.

‘People can think again’

Those who went for other candidates in the past presidential surveys may now reconsider their choices, Estrada said.

“The black propaganda against me (was) that I will be disqualified,” Estrada added. “People can think again.”

Maceda also presented the results of a survey conducted from April 23 to 25 showing Estrada already at solo second with 25 percent below Aquino’s 35 percent, with Villar falling to third with 17 percent.

Teodoro landed fourth with 9 percent in the survey commissioned by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, a reelectionist under Estrada’s party Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino.

In the latest Pulse Asia survey conducted also from April 23 to 25, Aquino also led the pack with 39 percent, while Estrada and Villar tied for second place at 20 percent.

“I think their only option is to swing their support to us to block the victory of Noynoy,” Maceda said.

Last person

But Estrada answered no when asked if there had been feelers from the Arroyo administration for a possible alliance in the run-up to the May 10 elections.

“I believe that I’d be the last person they’d talk to. Because, you know, they grabbed power from me and then they put me behind bars,” Estrada said.

The former leader said he didn’t have any debt of gratitude to the administration even with the pardon granted by Ms Arroyo.

“She’s the one who has a debt of gratitude. She was the one who sat (as President). She even did so for (almost) 10 years,” Estrada said.

Estrada had spent the most part of his campaign projecting himself as the only true opposition candidate.

MANILA, Philippines – Ang Kapatiran Party standard-bearer JC de los Reyes believes the endorsement of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy of Kingdom of Jesus Christ the Name Above Every Name congregation will not deliver votes on election day.

Speaking to reporters, De los Reyes described as “homage politics” Quiboloy’s endorsement of Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro Jr. and Liberal Party vice-presidential candidate Sen. Manuel Roxas II.

“It’s a transaction endorsement unknown to the followers or the flock of the church,” he said.

However, Reyes said the matrix released by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines showing him leading other presidential candidates was not an endorsement but a guide for voters.

“I was not endorsed by the CBCP but my advocacies jibe with the Church criteria for the next leader in the country,” he said.

Reyes said the CBCP matrix aims to guide Catholics on current issues affecting their daily lives.

“The CBCB matrix empowers and is transparent, while Quiboloy’s endorsement is paternalistic spoon-feeding and smacks of transactional politics,” he said.

De los Reyes topped the CBCP survey because most of his positions on issues matched with the “perspective” of the Catholic Church.

He was followed by independent candidates Nicanor Perlas, Ana Jamby Madrigal and Bro. Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas Party.

Entitled “Matrix of Presidentiables on Key Issues,” the survey was published this week in the CBCP Monitor, the official publication of the CBCP’s Media Office.

The candidates were judged based on their positions on issues like reproductive health, death penalty, gun ban in public places except for law enforcers, political dynasties, transparency in government transactions and pork barrel.

From the overall tally Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. ranked fifth followed by Liberal Party presidential candidates Sen. Benigno Aquino III, Sen. Richard Gordon of Bagumbayan Party, Teodoro and former President Joseph Estrada of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino.

Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, CBCP media director, said the information in the matrix was not meant to endorse any candidate but to “educate” the voters.

“So that people may know the positions of the candidates on issues like mining, human rights, and many others,” he said.

“It’s up to the voters now. Whether they are for or against RH bill, for example, they will have to take a serious decision.”

Quitorio said information in the matrix was culled from the candidates’ responses to letters, media interviews and from their interventions in the legislature.

Gordon: Teodoro sought endorsement

DUMAGUETE CITY –Bagumbayan presidential candidate Sen. Richard Gordon downplayed yesterday Quiboloy’s endorsement of Teodoro.

“I expected that,” he said.

“Gibo worked for that because he returned there repeatedly. And of course the pastor’s decision may have been affected by his being a townmate of the President.”

Speaking at a barangay in Bayawan City, Gordon said unlike Teodoro, who actively sought Quiboloy’s endorsement, he merely went to the pastor to show his respect.

“Hindi ko yun (endorsement) hinahanap (I’m not looking for that),” he said.

“The pastor is only human and so he may have been influenced. But I wouldn’t go out of my way for such an endorsement.”

Liberal Party standard-bearer Benigno Aquino III sees Quiboloy’s endorsement of Teodoro as “part of democracy.” – Perseus Echeminada, Mike Frialde, Delon Porcalla

MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III maintained a 15 to 16-point lead over his closest rival, former President Joseph Estrada, who has dislodged Nacionalista Party bet Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. from second spot, according to latest surveys by the Magdalo and the Manila Standard Today.

In the April 25 to 27 survey of Manila Standard Today, Aquino was the choice of 38 percent of those polled, followed by Estrada with 22 percent and Villar at 20 percent. The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus two percent and 2,500 respondents nationwide, was released.

At fourth was Lakas-Kampi-CMD bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. with nine percent; evangelist Eddie Villanueva at fifth, up by one point to three percent, while Sen. Richard Gordon got two percent to place sixth. The rest of the candidates got less than one percent, the Standard said.

The Standard poll showed Villar losing ground among the very poor, with a five-point loss, while Estrada gained nine points, and Aquino was virtually steady.

Manila Standard pollster Pedro Laylo Jr. explained that negative attacks against Villar had cost him support from poor voters who had shifted to Estrada.

In the Magdalo-commissioned survey, Aquino surged to 39.6 percent, even as Estrada posted 24.8 percent, overtaking Villar who obtained 23.6 percent in the April 19 to 24 poll.

Teodoro remained at fourth, with seven percent, followed by Villanueva, 2.6 percent, and Gordon, 0.8 percent. The rest of the candidates polled lower than 0.2 percent.

In the Manila Standard poll, Aquino’s running mate, Sen. Manuel Roxas II, continued to lead at 38 percent, followed by Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, 28 percent, and Sen. Loren Legarda, 20 percent.

MANILA, Philippines – Senior Associate Justice Renato Corona and three other contenders for chief justice are in the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC)’s shortlist to be sent to President Arroyo tomorrow.

The eight-member collegial body led by retiring Chief Justice Reynato Puno decided to submit the shortlist with the names of four candidates – Corona, Supreme Court Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion, and Sandiganbayan acting Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval – following an SC decision last month allowing the President to appoint Puno’s successor.

This developed as the Supreme Court (SC) said yesterday that the President could not appoint a new chief justice until a vacancy is created, which is on May 17.

The statement was issued in reaction to a Malacañang pronouncement that the President would appoint Puno’s replacement before the elections on May 10. A court spokesman said Puno did not intend to retire before May 17.

Corona, De Castro and Brion each got the unanimous nod of members of the JBC with eight votes, while Sandoval got seven.

Apart from Puno, the other members of the JBC are Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, Sen. Francis Escudero, Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., retired SC Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., University of Sto. Tomas dean emeritus Amado Dimayuga, Justice Aurora Santiago Lagman and Integrated Bar of the Philippines representative J. Conrado Castro.

Castro, who missed the meeting but submitted his vote to Puno before leaving for a vacation abroad, did not vote for Sandoval.

All four nominees submitted themselves to the screening process of JBC and attended the public interview in Baguio City last April 19.

The JBC did not include two other nominees for the post – Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales –who manifested their lack of interest in the post due to their stand that Mrs. Arroyo is not allowed by the Constitution to make the appointment.

In a press conference, SC spokesman Midas Marquez explained that the JBC opted to submit the shortlist to the Palace on May 5 so as to give the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) a chance to pursue its second appeal on the March 17 ruling of SC in today’s last full court session before the magistrates take a recess for the elections next week.

“The JBC is bending backwards for PBA. But the JBC can’t wait forever. If they failed to file that second motion for reconsideration before 9 a.m. or if it would be noted without action, then the JBC will submit the shortlist on Wednesday,” he stressed.

“The JBC does not see the need to delay these proceedings any further,” he added.

Marquez also rebuffed a reported statement of the Palace that Mrs. Arroyo would make the appointment before the automated elections on May 10.

“I don’t see how a chief justice can be appointed when the position is not yet vacant. There can’t be two chief justices at the same time. When there’s no vacancy there can be no appointment made,” he stressed.

The SC official also assured the public that Puno would not leave the SC until his retirement on May 17.

“Whoever will succeed can’t even take his oath while the retiring chief justice is still around,” added Marquez.

However, he admitted that the period for the appointment by Mrs. Arroyo was not touched in the SC ruling because “it was not an issue.”

Marquez said he does not know what the basis of deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar was in suggesting the appointment of the next chief justice before election day: “We leave it up to them.”

In a decision last March 17, the SC ruled that positions in the High Court are exempted from the ban on midnight appointments under Article VII Section 15 of the Charter, giving Mrs. Arroyo the power to name the successor of Puno.

The Court, in a resolution last April 20, affirmed this ruling and junked motions for reconsideration filed by parties. Marquez said this made the SC decision final.

GMA to act quickly on shortlist

Meanwhile, President Arroyo would act quickly on the shortlist of candidates for chief justice once it is submitted by the JBC, Malacañang said yesterday.

Olivar also said Mrs. Arroyo would not be affected by last-ditch attempts to stop her from naming the successor of Chief Justice Puno.

“Since all four names have been floated for a while now, this has given the President a head start in arriving at a well-considered choice from among these eminently qualified candidates,” Olivar told a news briefing.

“We can expect a decision soon,” he said.

He said ideally Puno’s successor should be named before the elections this coming Monday because of the possible filing of electoral protests before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) that would be headed by the chief justice.

Olivar hit the groups planning to file another motion for reconsideration before the SC, saying they could have some hidden agenda.

“Why are they insisting (on blocking Mrs. Arroyo to appoint the chief justice) when the SC already ruled twice against them? She is stepping down so there is no debt of gratitude. Maybe they want to install their own chief justice who will be indebted to them,” he said.

SC will be tainted if GMA appoints next CJ

Rep. Satur Ocampo of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna yesterday said that the SC will be tainted if President Arroyo appoints next chief justice.

He said people would call the tribunal an “Arroyo Court.”

Ocampo lamented that the JBC, which is supposed to be an independent body, apparently gave in to the prodding of Malacañang for it to submit its shortlist of nominees for the next chief justice.

“Mrs. Arroyo will appoint anyone who will have a debt of gratitude to her and her administration and hence shield her from legal accountability when the time comes for her to face charges for her crimes committed in office,” he said.

Even if Carpio is included in the JBC list, there are speculations that Mrs. Arroyo prefers Corona to him. Carpio wrote the October 2006 court decision junking the administration’s Charter change campaign through the people’s initiative mode, labeling it as a “gigantic fraud” and a “grand deception.”

Several groups, including lawyers’ organizations, have urged Corona to back out of the nomination process for next chief justice because of his close association with Mrs. Arroyo and the fact that his wife has been appointed by the President as an officer in a state corporation.

Meanwhile, Bagumbayan presidential bet Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday said that although he personally does not agree with the appointment of the new chief justice by Mrs. Arroyo before she steps down next month, he respects the decision of the SC.

PMP Senate bets tell GMA to give successor chance to appoint new CJ

Meanwhile, four senatorial candidates of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) yesterday said that President Arroyo should give the next president the chance to appoint a new chief justice.

In an interview with STAR editors, lawyer JV Bautista said there is a need for a “new dispensation” both in the national government and the Supreme Court.

Bautista, running under President Estrada’s political party PMP, said the justices of the High Court who signed the resolution favoring the contention that Arroyo has the authority to appoint the new Chief Justice “lack a sense of delicadeza.”

He said the interpretation of the Supreme Court justices’ on the Constitution is what prevails today.

“I think what is lacking there is the sense of delicadeza among the members of the Supreme Court. If you will check on the records of those who favored the ruling that Arroyo has the authority to appoint the new chief justice is that they are the most recent appointees of the president,” Bautista said.

For his part, former senator Francisco Tatad said there’s no need to interpret the Constitution to guide and enlighten the justices in their ruling on the authority of the President to appoint the new chief justice during the 90-day ban on appointments before the election.

“What you need is to read the Constitution correctly. You don’t have to interpret the Constitution. The Constitution is very clear. The vacancy has to be filled within 90 days, fill up the vacancy before the 90 days ban,” Tatad said.

PMP senatorial candidate Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada said the High Tribunal can elect an acting chief justice from among themselves.

“The justices have probably been pressured. It’s payback time for debt of gratitude. The SC justices should appoint a chief justice, but they come up with the ruling probably because they are forced to pay back their debt of gratitude,” Lozada said.

Of the four, only Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada gave a submissive statement to the High Court’s ruling.

“We can stage rallies and so forth. But we cannot really do anything about it anymore. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort,” Estrada said. With Paolo Romero, Jess Diaz, Jose Rodel Clapano

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—Bagumbayan standard-bearer Richard Gordon is not quite done with his beef against preelection surveys.

Even if he tops such a survey, said Gordon who scored 2 percent in the latest Pulse Asia exercise, he would not publish its results.

“I don’t want to use [surveys as tools for] propaganda,” the senator told the Inquirer by telephone on Thursday.

He said keeping survey results from the public eye would stop his fellow contenders for the presidency from placing more political ads to advance their candidacies, especially if they were as wealthy as the front-runners.

Gordon, a lawyer, said a survey was “okay” in itself but that political surveys should be banned, “like in Italy and France,” as these “serve no public benefit.”

“If it’s a political survey, they should say who paid for it. [Survey firms are] violating the law because they do not publish their methodology,” he said.

Earlier, Gordon sued Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations, another survey firm, for purportedly using “flawed and inaccurate methods.”

He asked the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to hold these firms liable for their “misleading surveys.”

“I don’t care about surveys. The court should compel these firms to disclose who paid for the surveys,” he said in a local radio interview, noting that a political survey costs P3 million.

5 who failed

Gordon, a native of Olongapo City, said all five Philippine presidents from Central Luzon had failed to uplift the lives of people in the region.

“[The] last 65 years of our country have shown that we have not [experienced] an effective leader. Can you imagine, in Central Luzon we had [Manuel] Quezon, [Ramon] Magsaysay, Diosdado Macapagal, Cory Aquino. And now, we have Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. We had five presidents from Central Luzon; how come Central Luzon is lagging behind Southern Luzon?” he said.

Gordon said that despite the existence of an airport in Clark (Pampanga) and a seaport in Subic (Zambales), “there is no focus on development and there is no focus on improving the country.”

He said he would be an “effective leader” should he be elected president.

‘Do-nothing guy’

But should Aquino win, the country would be “in trouble,” Gordon said during a campaign sortie in San Fernando on Wednesday night.

“He’s a do-nothing guy,” Gordon said of the Liberal Party’s standard-bearer and consistent first-placer in the surveys, citing the latter’s record as a senator and representative of Tarlac.

Gordon also trained his guns on Villar, saying the Nacionalista Party’s presidential candidate had done nothing to stop poverty.

He said the records of Aquino and Villar would pale in comparison to his own record, which includes stints as Olongapo mayor, chair of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, and chair of the Philippine National Red Cross.

(First of a series)

During a debate on the Manila campus of De La Salle University, Sen. Richard Gordon waves a thin black and white contraption roughly the size of a notebook. “Kindle,” he shouts.

“Here’s a little computer where you can put the entire school curriculum, from Grade 1 to high school to college. Every kid in public school should have one because he who reads, leads,” Gordon exclaimed.

Gordon talked about providing the country’s 17 million public school students with the Amazon.com product and raising the quality of education in the process.

“The government purchases textbooks for public schools. Oftentimes, these books are full of errors. That’s why we have book scams left and right. Why not get a Kindle for every student, download the accurate, factual books needed for the year, do the same every year. So every school year, we just buy new Kindles for the incoming Grade 1,” he explained.

Gordon later admits the plan is simplistic but doable.

Gordon tells reporters that a P0.50 tax on every text message could fund this e-book project.

If there are 2 billion text messages sent every day, he says, that could raise P365 billion annually, enough to buy a $100 Kindle made in China for each pupil and even raise teachers’ monthly salaries to P40,000 from P12,000.

“Our education is now on the level of Zambia and Tanzania. Education should not be a choice. Poverty is the absence of choice,” the senator says.

Gordon, who is running for president in the May 10 election under his newly formed Bagumbayan-Volunteers for a New Philippines Party, fancies himself a “transformer,” pointing to his record as a no-nonsense mayor of Olongapo City.

In the early 1990’s, Gordon captured the country’s attention when he elevated Olongapo from a honky-tonk town hosting American servicemen at the then US Subic Bay Naval Base to one of the country’s more progressive cities.

Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991 devastated Olongapo and hastened US troop departure from the base following the Senate’s rejection of the extension of the Philippines’ bases treaty with the United States.

Rather than grieve, Gordon reinvented himself as chair and administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and became the most prominent salesman of the former naval base as a trade and investment hub.

With its duty-free shops and the first class facilities in the base that was previously off limits to Filipinos, Subic became a prime domestic tourist destination. Olongapo was swept in the boom.

Gordon sought to instill discipline among his constituents, plastering signs all over the city declaring that “bawal ang tamad sa Olongapo,” or laziness is not allowed.

“Everything I did in Olongapo was a reaction to colonial culture. We have Juan Tamad who is a bad role model,” says Gordon, who served as mayor for a dozen years.

Gordon boasts that Olongapo was the first city to have tricycle drivers wearing uniforms.

Public utility vehicles were color-coded long before the scheme was adopted in Metro Manila to ease traffic jams.

But Gordon also had another reason for the project. When his father James L. Gordon, Olongapo’s founding father and its first mayor, was assassinated in 1967, the attackers escaped using tricycles. He figured that public vehicles and drivers should be identified easily.

In 1998, Felicito Payumo replaced Gordon as SBMA chief. Pundits trace a reason that went all the way back to 1992, the election year after the Senate’s rejection of the US Bases Treaty.

Posters showing the faces of the so-called “Magnificent 12” senators who voted for the rejection of the treaty were hoisted around Olongapo. People were told not to vote for them.

The urban legend goes that when Sen. Joseph Estrada, one of the Magnificent 12, became president six years later, he appointed Payumo to the SBMA to get back at Gordon.

Besides, Gordon was perceived to be more sympathetic to the Americans, a detail that could hurt the newly elected Estrada’s pro-poor image.

Asked if he considers himself a nationalist, Gordon was quick to respond: “Why shouldn’t I be?”

Gordon grew up in an Olongapo with a hovering American presence. “The bases were rammed down our throats,” he said.

Humble origins

Gordon grew up in a comparatively affluent family with humble origins. His father was a cochero—a driver of a horse-drawn carriage. He built a hotel, a grocery store, a bakery, a piggery, a fleet of jeepneys, movie houses and four restaurants.

The father taught the senator and his siblings—Veronica, Barbara, Cecille and James Jr.—a strict work ethic. “We were richer before we came into public office,” he says.

Growing up under the shadow of the US base, Gordon played baseball with both American kids and “the poorest of the poor” Filipinos that gravitated around the base looking for opportunities.

As a child, he worked as an usher in their theater and as a waiter and dishwasher in their restaurants, shined shoes and rented out comic books. He also collected slop from American households to feed their pigs, sold hand-stitched teddy bears and ladybugs and cajoled bar girls to promote his products with their American boyfriends.

Fist fights and judo

Gordon went to school in Manila. He remembers attending Grade 1 in St. Theresa’s College in QC and Grades 2 to 4 in Letran College, where he had fond memories of fist fights with Spanish mestizo classmates.

“I once came home with a bleeding upper lip. My father urged me to take up judo. He told me, ‘stand your guard and fight.’”

Gordon finished elementary at Lourdes School in Quezon City. Long after graduation, a teacher remembered Gordon fondly as the only boy who could spell “yacht.”

“I was always president of the class,” he says.

Gordon recalls that a visit by the New York Yankees to Subic was a turning point in his life.

Life is like baseball

“I saw them with my dad. They defeated the Pinoys, 20-0,” he says. After the game, the elder Gordon told his son that life was like baseball. “It teaches you to ‘step up the plate’, to ‘swing that bat.’ Both are idioms for accountability,” he says.

The assassination of his father—after three failed attempts—brought to Gordon the harsh reality of politics. He says his father was killed for exposing the involvement of the vice mayor in illegal logging and smuggling.

“The case was never brought to justice. That’s why I wanted to become a lawyer,” he says.

Before entering law school at the University of the Philippines, Gordon was brand manager of Tide and Safeguard at Procter and Gamble. ‘I introduced Safeguard to the market. It’s still number one, kiddo,” he says.

“We worked like dogs. We were taught to be assertive. It was like a boot camp. Our American and Filipino bosses were dictators,” he recalls.

At best, the experience was a reinforcement of what his father had taught him years before.

Lessons in discipline

“In Olongapo, my exposure to life in the bases taught a lot about discipline, the accountability of one man and the responsibility of officers. If we had a navy like that, we Filipinos would be more arrogant,” he says.

He admits he was for the extension of the US lease at Subic.

“Why am I pro-bases? I’ve proven my point. We are saddled by a culture of weakness. And in this culture, I’m quickly judged as arrogant,” he says.

“Everybody’s afraid of change. I’m a man who changes things. I can do things that men who do not want change cannot do.

“Look what happened to Pinatubo and Subic. Pinatubo was the end of the world for us. It showed there was no governance. All we had were shovels and prayers. Our hospital collapsed from the weight of the ash fall. I told God I’m willing to die, just that He not make me panic while all this was going on,” Gordon said.

Fraternity with Erap

Gordon insists that voters examine the track records of all candidates. He cites former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, the former mayor of San Juan, as an example.

“Erap won because he was a mayor. Of course, he was liked because all his movies were pro-poor. But he was trusted because he was a mayor.”

Gordon feels a certain degree of fraternity with Estrada because both of them were unceremoniously booted out of their offices in 1986 by then President Corazon Aquino after the ouster of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Youngest delegate

Unlike other politicians compelled to trace some form of bond with Aquino, Gordon again points to his track record as a stronger proof of leadership.

A lawyer, he was the youngest delegate to the 1971 constitutional convention, had been mayor of Olongapo, founding chair and administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, tourism secretary, is currently senator and chair of the Philippine National Red Cross.

Gordon admires President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s work ethic. “She has improved the economy. What the world looks at, she has improved. But from where we look at, she hasn’t improved,” says Gordon.

“We want better schools and no corruption. People do not like her because of the First Gentleman. She broke her promise not to run, plus there’s ‘Hello Garci,’” he says.

Transformers

Gordon says he is running for president for the sake of the “vulnerable”—referring to the impoverished Filipinos. “We have really done bad as a country.”

He always emerges as best or second best speaker during informal surveys taken after presidential debates but is doing poorly in the Social Weather Station and Pulse Asia surveys.

“Who cares about the ratings? If you want me, you will vote for me,” he barks at a television reporter.

“Take out the names, take out the money of all the candidates and just look at the persons, their platforms, their track record, their record of integrity and competence and people will know who to vote for,” he says.

Gordon’s running mate is Bayani Fernando, who as mayor turned Marikina from a backwater into one of the country’s modern cities and as chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority brought order in the streets of the Philippine capital.

They call themselves “the transformers.”

“This will be a transformational, instead of a transactional leadership that only deepens the root of corruption in government. My strategy is plain and simple, people want new leaders who can deliver,” he says.

“Leadership is not a title, it is not a position. It is action.”

Curiosities

Gordon’s office in the Senate looks like a shop of curiosities. Nearly all walls are lined with books. Scale models of ships are moored on tables. A museum quality diorama of the Knights of the Round Table rests on a dinner-sized table in his quarters. “King Arthur is about chivalry,” he said.

There are also various figures of horses “because I love to ride horses.”

And a statue of Don Quixote. “A friend gave me that. When I was a child, my father cranked up the volume of the stereo and played ‘Impossible Dream’ in the morning. This was before it became a Ninoy song,” Gordon said.

Does the mile-a-minute Gordon know that he talks too much?

He pauses for about two seconds. “But I make sense, don’t I?”

MANILA, Philippines – With elections less than two weeks away, the tandem of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard-bearer former President Joseph Estrada and running mate Jejomar Binay surged to the number two spot.

Results of Pulse Asia’s latest pre-election survey showed that Estrada and Nacionalista Party (NP) bet Sen. Manuel Villar are now tied at second place with 20 percent each.

Binay, showing strong improvement, also overtook NP bet Sen. Loren Legarda for second place (28 percent versus 20 percent).

Pulse Asia said Binay gained nine percentage points in electoral support while Legarda’s score dropped from 23 percent in March to 20 percent in a survey conducted from April 23 to 25.

Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III is still dominating the race with 39 percent or four in 10 Filipino voters showing preference for him. Aquino is leading by 19 points over Villar and Estrada.

Aquino was apparently buoyed by the results and attributed the increase in his numbers to the LP’s intensive campaign in different parts of the country.

“I’ve told you that once we move around (for the campaign sorties, my rating will increase),” he said.

Estrada, for his part, said the Pulse Asia survey is good news.

“This reflects that people are now seeing beyond the campaign propaganda of other camps and discerning who is truly opposition and who is truly pro-poor,” said Estrada’s spokeswoman Margaux Salcedo.

Administration bet Gilberto Teodoro of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD came in a distant third with seven percent; followed by Bangon Pilipinas candidate Bro. Eddie Villanueva with three percent.

Villanueva, meanwhile, said he is not bothered by his rating and maintains that the public should expect an upset in the election turnout, confident that the entire ticket of the BPP will win.

Bagumbayan standard-bearer Sen. Richard Gordon ranks fifth with two percent; followed by disqualified presidential candidate Vetellano Acosta of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan with one percent.

The other presidential candidates received less than one percent of the respondents’ votes: independent candidate Nicanor Perlas (0.3 percent), Ang Kapatiran Party’s John Carlos de los Reyes (0.2 percent); and Sen. Jamby Madrigal (0.1 percent).

Nine percent of respondents were undecided about their presidential preference.

According to Pulse Asia, the other vice-presidential candidates register voter preferences of at most three percent. They were former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando of the Bagumbayan Party (three percent); Lakas-Kampi candidate actor Edu Manzano (three percent); Bangon Pilipinas’ Perfecto Yasay (one percent); KBL’s Jay Sonza (0.3 percent); and AKP bet Dominador Chipeco (0.05 percent).

In a reaction, Roxas said he is very grateful to the Filipinos for their continuing support.

“We pledge to pursue our commitment to reform our government so that our people can enjoy the fruits of good governance as this will result in true progress and development for all the peoples of this country,” he said.

Pulse Asia said among the major developments immediately prior to and during the conduct of interviews were defections from the Lakas-Kampi mostly to the NP and LP, and Sen. Francis Escudero’s endorsement of Aquino for president and Binay for vice-president.

The non-commissioned survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,800 representative adults. – With Evelyn Macairan, Marvin Sy, Aurea Calica, Cecille Suerte Felipe